While the Eagles qualified for the knockout stages after finishing second in Group A with three points, the Carthage Eagles confirmed their ticket after finishing second in Group C with four points.
The North Africans finished five points behind leaders Nigeria, after winning one match, drawing one, and losing one. However, they scored six goals, and conceded five. For Mali, they only scored two goals and conceded two.
Tunisia’s journey saw them beat Uganda 3-1 in the opener, lost 3-2 against the Super Eagles, before drawing 1-1 against Tanzania. For the Eagles, they started their campaign with a 1-1 draw against Zambia, 1-1 draw against hosts Morocco, before drawing 0-0 against Comoros.
Speaking ahead of the game, Saintfiet was asked whether he was concerned with Tunisia’s scoring run in the competition. Without mincing words, the former Togo tactician responded with confidence they are ready for the task.
Mali have good defenders and goalkeeper
“Tunisia are one of those dangerous sides, and we have already talked about that. They have a very good forward line, if not checked can be dangerous, but we are not worried about that because we have good quality players who can stop them,” said Saintfiet at Mohammed V in Casablanca.
“We have good defenders, we have a good goalkeeper, we conceded one goal during the AFCON qualifiers for Morocco in six games, and during the World Cup qualification campaign, in six matches, we only conceded two goals.
“So, we are a good side, because if you look at the previous statistics as mentioned above, we have been very solid defensively. We know Tunisia will not be easy but we are ready for the task.”
The Malian coach added: “We don’t have the favourites in this match, and our aim is to focus on the small details and play well. We already achieved the first step towards our goals in the tournament by qualifying from the group stage, and now we have to change the gear and focus on positive results in the second round.”
While Tunisia have been marvelous upfront, they have been poor defensively, something head coach Sami Trabelsi admitted they must improve on against Mali.
“Yes, it is true, we have not been good enough, we have not been efficient enough, but our focus was to qualify for this stage, which we managed to do,” said Trabelsi.
“We know we haven’t given our fans enough but qualifying was the most important thing and now we can focus on producing our best level against Mali.”
He added: “It is true we have conceded a lot of goals, we did not manage to lock key areas during the group stage, it is something we have worked on, and rectified during the two-day break, we don’t want to be conceding goals, and the players know it.”
In history, Mali and Tunisia have met four times previously at AFCON, with Mali remaining unbeaten (W2 D2). This will be their first knockout-stage meeting, with all four previous AFCON clashes having come in the group stages.
They will be meeting at a fourth successive AFCON tournament, having faced each other in 2019, 2021 and 2023, after first meeting at the finals in 1994.
If Mali secure victory, it would take them to the quarterfinals for a seventh time after 1994, 2002, 2004, 2012, 2013, and 2023.
